Prince Harry Warned His Gains May Be Minimal in Press Trial
As Prince Harry prepares to face a significant press trial, an expert has cautioned that the Duke of Sussex may "achieve very little" despite the time, effort, and cost involved in pursuing the case against a major media empire.
The trial pits Harry against Rupert Murdoch's *The Sun* and the now-defunct *News of the World*. He alleges that employees of the tabloids unlawfully intruded on his private life between 1996 and 2011, including allegedly obtaining the flight records of his ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy.
Professor Tim Luckhurst, principal of South College at Durham University in Britain, told *Newsweek*, "I think he's spending a great deal of money to achieve very little."
These remarks come as Harry, alongside former British lawmaker Tom Watson, stands among the final prominent figures pursuing lawsuits against News Group Newspapers (NGN). This follows the settlement of over 1,000 other cases related to the notorious phone-tapping scandal.
Despite the potential challenges, Harry has consistently maintained that his motivation is not monetary but rooted in exposing the truth. "Seeing all this evidence only now is infuriating," he stated in a 2023 witness statement.
“To know we were being tracked, bugged, and hacked while trying to have a private relationship, just so [publisher] NGN could print a story and sell a newspaper, is mind-blowing," the Duke of Sussex said. "Methods that should, at best, be reserved for proper investigative journalism that looks into public-interest stories were being used on normal, innocent people, and for what?”
Harry did not mince words about his expectations for accountability. “Those responsible should be locked up in my view, as there is zero justification, and it is, frankly, criminal. Any claim or suggestion that senior staff weren’t aware of what their employees or journalists were doing is obviously a lie,” he concluded.
The trial marks a critical moment in Harry's ongoing effort to address what he perceives as systemic abuses by the media, even as questions linger about the ultimate impact of his legal battle.
